Jeep Wrangler unlimited

[BerserkerCatSplat]

Originally posted by r3ccOs
are those Dana 44 anvils on the Rubi's still made of aluminum?

Wrangler D44s have never been made of aluminum, Rubicon or otherwise. D44As were strictly a Grand Cherokee item.

[Jeeper1986]

Originally posted by BerserkerCatSplat


Wrangler D44s have never been made of aluminum, Rubicon or otherwise. D44As were strictly a Grand Cherokee item.

there was a batch of axles with flaws where the metal broke and it looked like aluminum but it was shit steel lol I think that problem has been fixed

[mazdavirgin]

Originally posted by importracer
Can anyone else comment on the crash test ratings of these vehicles? If it's unsafe as mentioned above especially for babies, then we may have to reconsider...Thoughts on other manual SUV's which are similar however safer?

Pretty bad safety ratings when compared to vehicle in it's class when it comes to side impact. Removable doors suck when it comes to side impacts who would have thunk...

Not so great for kids either(select the section on child seat anchors):
http://www.iihs.org/iihs/ratings/veh...-door-suv/2016

Marginal safety ratings for kids, side impact, and head restraints/seats.

Also a poor rating for headlights which Jeeps frankly are infamous for having just god awful lights.

If safety is a priority wouldn't figure at all on my list of vehicles to consider.

[jonnycat]

I'd only ever buy another wrangler as an off road toy, never again as a daily driver. Just a pain in the ass to live with most days.

[freshprince1]

If it's a daily driver, make sure to at least go with the Sahara. I rented one in Hawaii (Sport model I think?) and had the wife and kids in it...we took it back after 2 days...it was really uncomfortable as a daily driver.

Then last year I rented a Sahara for an 8 hour highway road trip and a week of pheasant hunting. It was a whole different story. It rode great on the highway and was pretty quiet )it was the hard top). Then we'd go bombing off road into farmer's fields (don't worry, we had permission) and got up to 60km/hr driving through corn fields, driving up and down steep ditches, etc. It was great!

Even the Sahara with its upgrades was still a much more rigid driver on the roads, and you fully notice you're still in a Jeep...but it was much more doable and comfortable.

So as long as you're making the conscious decision to sacrifice some comfort and drivability, you should be good with the Sahara edition.

[4WARNED]

We've got a 2013 Geck Green Rubicon and we're a family of five . here's my two cents:

- Wife hates the soft top rear window. It's a pain in the ass to put anything in the back when it's installed. She prefers the hard top for those instances. gate swings open and window pivots up on the hardtop, giving you enough room to swallow a shop vac or baby stroller. Try that with the soft top window (and let's be honest, it's not that easy to pull out and put back in) and you'll hear from the wife.
- it is fairly loud on the highway. We drove it down to Fernie for a weekend and it was brutal in the wind (had the hardtop on at the time). Between the high winds and the Mud Terrain tires and 125 kph highway speed, it wasn't that great. I've rented saharas for my work and they're much much better on the highway.
- gas mileage - ours gets 500km to tank in the city. I thought that was acceptable for what is essentially driving a brick shaped front end.
- headlights - yep. need an upgrade. I put CIBIE housings with higher wattage bulbs (H4 to H13 conversion) and it made a huge difference.
- 4:10 gears with the rubicon. Having driven the other version of the unlimited, these gears actually make the jeep quite "quick". I did the accelerator pedal flash too (google it) and it made a difference to how quickly the jeep accelerates.
- find a good windshield shop. you'll be visiting often.
- I bought ours when it was a year old - private sale. We've had it for 2.5 years now and I could sell it for what I bought it for. crazy strong resale - especially if it's a odd color (like Gecko Green).

Other than those items, we love it. I've had the doors off a bunch of times (top down too) and the kids can't wait to go cruising with it.

With that said, we ended up adding another jeep to our stable for highway trips ( GC SRT lol). but I won't give up our Rubi....it's too much fun.